China seals Bo's fate ahead of November 8 leadership congress

September 28, 2012|Chris Buckley and Ben Blanchard | Reuters

His brash self-promotion irked some leaders. But his populist ways and crime clean-up were welcomed by many of Chongqing's 30 million residents, as well as others who hoped that Bo could take his leftist-shaded policies nationwide.

His likely trial could still stir that ideological contention. China's party-run courts rarely find in favor of defendants, especially in politically-sensitive cases.

After state television announced the charges against Bo, some leftist sympathizers insisted that he was the innocent victim of a political plot.

"I just still don't believe that Bo has so many problems with corruption," Han Deqiang, a leftist Beijing academic who has supported Bo, told Reuters. "We have to wait and see what else comes out. But I don't think we've been given the truth."

In March, Bo was sacked as Chongqing party boss, and in April he was suspended from the party's Politburo, a powerful decision-making council with two dozen active members.

The latest party statement also said Bo "had or maintained improper sexual relations with multiple women". It added that the investigation discovered clues of other, unspecified crimes.

"We'll have to wait and see what charges are accepted by the prosecutors in any indictment," said Li Zhuang, a Beijing lawyer who was jailed by Bo after raising allegations that Chongqing's anti-crime gang policies involved torture and other unchecked abuses. "The charges could change."

(Additional reporting by Michael Martina and Sally Huang in Beijing, and John Ruwitch in Shanghai; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)